Obtaining informed consent of elderly research subjects with psychiatric disorders, including cognitive impairment and emotional disorders, is a requirement by regulation. However, the capacity of these populations to give informed consent has been questioned by some lawyers, ethicists and clinicians. This questioning has led to the development of proposals which would provide special protection and safeguards to certain subgroups of elderly research subjects. It is disturbing that these safeguards, which can be quite stringent, are being proposed without any empirical data which strongly suggest the need for them. Thus, research progress may be impeded and autonomy and independence of the elderly may be compromised needlessly. This project proposes to empirically assess the competency of elderly psychiatric patients to give informed consent to research. Two psychiatric patient groups will be studied: 1. those with cognitive impairment and 2. Those with emotional disorders. Their capacity to give consent will be assessed on four dimensions: 1. their comprehension of the consent information; 2. the quality of their reasoning about their decision to participate in the research; 3. the reasonableness of their decision; and 4. their ability to reach a decision. The results of this project will aid in policy-decisions about research with elderly psychiatric patients and will help to identify circumstances where the elderly do not require special protection and consequently the findings may help to preserve their sense of the independence and dignity.